Recycling centres threaten to close
Recycling has become a victim of its own success. The operator of four Quebec recycling centres, three of them in the Montreal area, is threatening to close them unless more money is forthcoming from cities served. Recycling firms used to be able to send their stuff to memory holes in China and elsewhere in Asia, but now we’re facing the fact that nobody else wants to deal with it.
Spi 09:54 on 2020-01-23 Permalink
Saying that it’s become a victim of its own success implies that we’re great at recycling which we are not and that somehow an uptick in recycling is the reason why yards are overflowing with recycled paper products. The problem is that the sorting process used by these centers has never been good enough to meet local standards for recycled paper going into production, instead of improving their operations they’ve developed an entire business model around shipping their sub-standard recycled paper halfway across the world while periodically asking for government bailouts. Now they’re stuck with it because Asian countries won’t buy their inferior goods.
Michael Black 10:04 on 2020-01-23 Permalink
We use to have to tie up bundles of newsprint, and when glossy paper was added that too needed to be bundled separately. Glass, cans and plastic were also supposed to be kept separate.
At some point those restrictions went away, making it easier for people at home but making it harder for the recycling plants.
walker 10:05 on 2020-01-23 Permalink
And to add the terrible sorting at the source, homes and businesses. We need a system where each household/condo/apartment/business has a specific bin for specific types of materials so they can be collected separately before they even get to the center. And their needs to be education on the state of these materials (paper with no foodstains, glass and the correct types of plastic containers rinsed, etc.) and then serious fines for places that don’t comply.
This practice is done in many other municipalities across Canada and the U.S. They have trucks now that automatically pick up the correct bin and dump it into the correct section of the truck.
Ephraim 15:15 on 2020-01-23 Permalink
We may need to scale back what we put in the recycling bin and take away only what can easily be recycled. Like only taking in #1 and #2 plastics, which can easily be recycled… while almost all the others are difficult to recycle.
Spi 16:54 on 2020-01-23 Permalink
@walker the argument against that has always been that if you make it too complicated or laborious people will drop the habit of recycling altogether. Judging by some of the recycling habits I’ve seen I’d tend to agree with that. Many really couldn’t care less, I’ve seen leftover construction material in the compost bin. Easily recyclable materials in the trash. There is a serious lack of civic pride and responsibility among the citizens of this city, the “I pay taxes, the government will take care of it” mentality is prevalent.
CE 17:54 on 2020-01-23 Permalink
I think it would be better if the people who are too lazy/apathetic to sort properly just threw everything in the garbage. That way the recycling and compost that’s collected would actually be useable. There’s a huge lack of education, a lot of people just seem to have no idea what is recyclable and compostable and what isn’t. My neighbour tried to give me a hard time about putting a pizza box in the compost instead of the recycling because it’s cardboard, despite being completely soiled with grease and cheese. The recycling I see on the street is often filled with completely unrecyclable items. A guy in my building who seems to eat exclusively fast food delivery just throws it all in the blue bag, no matter what it is. It would be better if he just didn’t try to recycle in the first place.
walkerp 10:34 on 2020-01-24 Permalink
@spi, then you punish them. Landlord gets a big fine. Done.
Dhomas 13:40 on 2020-01-24 Permalink
When the carrot doesn’t work, time to use the stick. I agree 100% with @walkerp.